UESP Forums

I'm trying to figure out something here. I've had this happen to me when playing a lot of games that use the WASD for movement. It's happened in Oblivion, Half Life 2, Portal and Portal 2, and many other games, and now Skyrim.

Sometimes, very random it seems, when I let go of the W key after walking forward for a while, I keep moving forward! I can't change direction, nor stop. Hitting other keys seems to do nothing, then I'll hear a "BEEP" on my sound, and just after that, I stop moving forward. As you can imagine, this is BAD especially up in the mountains and there is a hair pin turn up ahead!

My keyboard is clean (I keep it that way), and I do not have this issue except with games (for example while typing posts, the W key does not physically get stuck).

Can anyone tell me why it's doing this to me?

I can say, that I never used to have this problem until I upgraded to Windows 7 a long time ago.

Well, if your character sometimes continues to move after a key is released, it means the movement command is still active. Kinda does point to an intermittently sticking key. Could be a dirt issue, regardless of how clean you believe the keyboard is, or it could be a mechanical wear issue, especially if the key is used a lot and/or you have a tendency to press hard on the keys. (Things just aren't as robust these days as they used to be in the days of cast iron typewriters. And, when typing, you probably aren't pressing the keys as hard as when you're game-playing, which might explain the lack of typing trouble with that key.)

If you have another PC or a spare keyboard at home, try swapping the keyboard to see if it makes a difference. Failing that, new keyboards are very economically priced these days. They're practically considered disposable/consumable, so it doesn't hurt to have a good spare one on hand anyway.

As for the Windows 7 thing, I'd be inclined to consider that a coincidence of timing.

Are you sure it's not lag?

No, as it happens in like Oblivion where even with everything turned up, I get an insane amount of FPS. Same for other games. Skyrim is the first game I've gotten to slow me down, heh.

Evil-i may be right. I've had this keyboard for about 4 years now. When it get's dirty, it get's taken apart and cleaned well.

I miss my old 102 keyboard I had with my ancient 286 computer. The keys on it had the same feel as a IBM Selectric type writter. But I do love the way my wife's keyboard looks....the keys are all lit up and everything.

Happens to me in Battlefield 3 from time to time but without the beep. Suddenly all the mouse movement that has occurred in the period of being unable to interact with my PC happens all at once and I find myself looking at my feet or something in control of my character again. Very weird. Doesn't happen to me in Skyrim though so I'm afraid I can't help you.

it could be that your holding the W down so long, that it is building up in memory to go forward, that when you let go, it hasnt caught up yet and is still purging itself, hence your still going forward without touching it. the reaction between the game and the computer is off, causing a delay.

Are you sure you're not accidentally pressing the "C" key (auto-walk)?

This makes all the sense in the world. Doesn't the "BEEP" occur when the command queue is full and you try to input more commands?

I'm pretty sure he isn't pressing the auto-move button. That doesn't lock your controls down. Plus the fact that it happens in other games.
Once I upgraded to W7, I noticed (in all my games) that sometimes the computer just issues a bunch of commands without my permission (really irritated me when I was selling books in Skyrim, then suddenly everything changes, I'm in my weapons menu, and my Magus Staff had been sold >.<).

My un-educated guess would be something involving W7, however.